Posted on 06/24/2011 4:10:05 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship is upright for the first time in almost 150 years, revealing a side of its hull not seen since it sank off the South Carolina coast during the Civil War.
Workers at a conservation lab finished the painstaking, two-day job of rotating the hand-cranked H.L. Hunley upright late Thursday.
The Hunley was resting on its side at a 45-degree angle on the bottom of the Atlantic when it was raised in August 2000 and scientists had kept it in slings in that position in the lab for the past 11 years.
But they needed to turn it upright to continue with the job of conservation.
Scientists hope the hidden side of the sub will provide clues as to why the Hunley sank with its eight-member crew in February, 1864, after sending the Union blockade ship Houstonic to the bottom.
While there was no immediate clue from a first look at the hidden hull but "we are seeing some tantalizing clues on that side," Hunley archaeologist Maria Jacobsen said Friday.
***
There are various theories why the sub sank. It could have been damaged by fire from the Housatonic or the sub's crew was knocked out by the concussion from the blast that sank that ship. Or it could have been damaged by another Union vessel rescuing the Housatonic.
***
The next step in conserving the Hunley comes next week when it will be lowered onto keel blocks to hold it upright. It will probably be a month before a truss and the slings that suspended the sub from it will be removed, providing an even better view of the submarine.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
They need to repair it, because it might be needed again pretty soon. :)
Defense budget cuts?
Yup. Ted Turner film. They had it showing continuously in the ante-hall outside the conservation tank.
She was in a tank and underwent electrolysis for a long time to stabilize the iron. I haven’t figured out from this story or other articles whether she’s still in the tank or not.
I’ve seen a couple of 1-hour documentaries on TV.
There is no clear answer as to what sank the submarine. She signaled the men on shore after the attack. A fire was lit on shore to guide the men home.
Right now it sounds like they bottomed the boat, fell asleep and never woke up. The balast pumps were x-rayed and showed that the crew were not trying to pump out water.
There is a made-for-tv movie about the submarine. It was produced by the TNT network about 10 or 12 years ago. The writers had the men getting stuck on the bottom when they took on too much water.
The crew were given a proper Confederate military burial. (The PC crowd didn't like this). My guess is that the benefit of raising the relatively small submarine out weighed everything else. Also she could not be protected where she was and there's the mystery of why she sank.
Those men were frighteningly brave. That thing was a deathtrap,,,with almost no hope of escape.
Yeah, but they have no taste.....
Use their sorry carcass as a rug.
Hey, thanks guys for the info and the link ,way cool stuff for 1863.
i was there this past april. they think she will be in the tank until 2016. very nice place and, being it was a sunday, we got to go in and see her (no cameras, no phones, etc.) volunteers were very friendly and knowledgeable. down the road is the cemetary with the graves of the 2nd, 3rd, and last crews.
the movie is THE HUNLEY starring armand assante (the frog from ncis) and donald sutherland (oddball)
(((ping)))
“one ping only.”
No, hven’t made it down there yet. They had a mock-up of the Hunley at the Air Show at Andrews Air Force Base years ago and they were selling shirts to help finance the recovery.
I wouldn't worry about that. The last boat I was on was full of good ole boys. I was one of only two guys in my division who owned shoes before boot camp.
I thought they died from lack of oxygen. Didn’t they have oil lamps burning inside? IIRC, didn’t they also find the crewmen still in their uniforms/shoes? Anyway, fascinating.
>>>> Seriously, are there any documentaries about the
Hunley?
As far as I know, the first “documentary” about the Hunley was an episode of the CBS series “The Great Adventure”. A show that took incidents of American history and portrayed them as accurately as they could for the time.
Original Air Date:
27 September 1963 (Season 1, Episode 1)
Jackie Cooper ... Lt. Dickson
James MacArthur ... Lt. Alexander
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0592453/combined
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.